Professor Nelson joined the Pepperdine faculty in 2007 as the William H. Rehnquist Professor of Law. Before coming to Pepperdine, Professor Nelson was on the faculty at UCLA School of Law since 1991 and taught Real Estate Finance, Advanced Real Estate Transactions, Property, Land Use Regulation, and
Remedies. He was the recipient of the UCLA School of Law's Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2000 and the UCLA University's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2002. UCLA law graduates selected him as "Professor of the Year" in 2004, 2005 and 2007.

He was the co-reporter for the American Law Institute's Restatement of Property (Third)-Mortgages (1997), served on the Law School Editorial Advisory Board of the West Publishing Company, and as a commissioner of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.